I’ve been taking creatine since i started working out. I’ve heard (but never from a reliable source)that it needs to be cycled. i ignored them due to lack of reason for it. does anybody have any info on this?
Need to be Cycled …No…
That being said, Personally I use a cycling methood to drive my strength higher…
Load up on the creatine, when you expierience the associated stregnth gain, stay with it for two weeks, then cycle out,
and PUSH yourself to keep using the same weights and reps…
when they start gettin comfortable, go back on and up the weights/reps…
It may be partly psychological, but I find it to be Highly effective…
Creatine doesn’t HAVE to be cycled, but many lifters do cycle it so they can reload and feel that initial burst that accompanies creatine loading. NOBODY should get weaker when they go off creatine as long as they continue to bust their ass. Alot of people claim to go down on their lifts when they go off but those individuals head-fuck themselves by thinking they absolutely need it to make gains, which makes them train with less intensity.
I’ve found Coach Poliquin’s recommendation for cycling, as many of his other recommendations, quite effective. What I do is Load for the first week, Maintain for the second week, Reload for the third week, Re-Maintain for the fourth week, Then cycle off for 3-4 weeks.